Like traditional marketing, nothing meaningful happens in the digital marketing world without a sale. All of the website visitors and Facebook followers in the world won’t add a penny to your bottom line until somebody boldly steps forward and purchases your product.

Just driving traffic to your website can be a mind-numbing, time-consuming and costly undertaking but it’s only part of the equation. You need to have a healthy percentage of that visitor traffic convert if your business is going to survive, let alone thrive. Depending on your particular goals, a successful visitor conversion could be anything from an actual purchase from your e-commerce site to completing a contact form to receive a price quote or free consultation.

The problem is that only a very small percentage of your website visitors will be ready to buy or even enter your sales funnel after they arrive at your site. Numerous studies have shown that:

• The average site conversion rate ranges from two to four percent. This means that 96 to 98 percent of your traffic is going to leave your site without making a purchase or engaging your call-to-action offer.
• Even adding an item to your shopping cart is no guarantee of success – an estimated 64 percent of online shopping carts are abandoned prior to completing a sale.
• One of the most effective ways to boost your conversion rate is to retarget those visitors who failed to buy with a series of reminders about the value of doing business with your company.

How Does Retargeting Work?
Retargeting involves the embedding of a cookie, or small file, on the web browser of every visitor to your site. The cookie allows you to follow your visitors as they browse other sites on the web, displaying ads for your company that help maintain top-of-mind awareness. You’ll be able to continue your engagement with prospects and have additional opportunities to entice them to return to your website and complete your desired call-to-action offer.

Retargeting Can Increase Your Marketing Return on Investment (ROI)
In many cases, a retargeting campaign is less costly than targeted pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Because retargeting is directed at those prospects that have already visited your website and are familiar with your brand, they may be ready to purchase with a little more encouragement on your part. Research tells us that many significant purchases require seven “touches” or contacts to convert a prospect into a customer, and retargeting is an effective means of delivering the additional touches that will tip the scale in your favor.

Retargeting Helps Deliver More Relevant Brand-building Advertising
The success of any marketing campaign can be measured in terms of your ability to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. By retargeting your website visitors, you can deliver highly targeted and relevant ads tailored to their experience on your site. This allows you to extend their brand experience with a gentle nudge that hopefully brings them back to your offer.

Retargeting is Relatively Easy to Implement
Retargeting begins with your selection of an ad network to deliver your messages. Embed the retargeting cookie on your website and create relevant ads to be delivered to your retargeted prospects. Companies that offer a range of retargeting services include AdRoll, Chango, Perfect Audience, Triggit, ReTargeter, and Google.